Fantastic Four [UMD Mini for PSP] [2005]

The Fantastic Four, who will be confused with "The Incredibles" even though they should not be, are Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic (Ioan Gruffudd), Sue Storm/The Invisible Girl (Jessica Alba), her brother Johnny Storm/The Human Torch (Chris Evans), and Ben Grimm/The Thing (Michael Chiklis). The genesis for "The World's Greatest Comic Book" was Stan Lee and Jack Kirby taking the idea of a superhero group (to wit, the Justice League of America) and giving it a twist by having the members always at each other's throat. The screenplay by Mark Frost ("Hill Street Blues," "Twin Peaks") and Michael France ("Hulk," "Punisher") ups the ante on that dysfunctionality. Of course you have the Thing mad at everybody, but primarily at Reed, whom he blames for the transformation, and Johnny, who is always adding insult to the aforementioned injury along with a bevy of practical jokes. But now we also have Reed and Sue being an ex-couple with unresolved issues from their breakup and Sue constantly telling Johnny to grow up (especially when he publicly lays the "Invisible Girl" label on her).

There are a lot of things that I think this movie has working in its favor. First, the humor, of which there is a lot, is mostly character driven and rarely overplayed, without taking away from the seriousness of the storyline. Second, when there are fight sequences you can actually see what is going on because Tim Story is not relying on rapid editing of shots to simply convey an effect. Third, there is an effort to deal realistically with these powers, from what happens to their clothes to asking the big question that has been on the minds of everyone regarding Mr. Fantastic since issue #1 of the comic book (okay, the question goes back to Plastic Man, but nod your head and play along). Fourth, when we get to the big finale the F.F. actually work as a team. True, if you are four against one that makes sense, but the contrast to the X-Men movies where everybody teams up for fights or takes turns fighting Magneto was good to see. Finally, for the first time, in his cameo Stan Lee actually plays a recognizable and beloved character from the original comic book and for that matter I liked the casting with Alicia Masters (Kerry Washington), and hope there is a scene or two between her and Ben that will appear in the deleted scenes on the DVD (which I expect to see out for Christmas).

For me the problematic parts of the story line have to do with the new and improved Victor von Doom (Julian McMahon). On the hand I understand the problem when you have a quartet of superheroes going up against a guy wearing armor and a cloak. After all, Doom is not as smart as Reed and not as strong as the Thing, so being the FF's greatest villain given the inherent one-to-four odds had to rely on other things, which was usually the element of surprise and the fact Doom was the king of Latveria. Having diplomatic immunity is a nice roadblock for superheroes to have to deal with in repeat encounters. What they go for here is to have Victor along for the ride so when dem cosmic rays hit he gets some powers too and has his own dermatological concerns. The Marvel universe reference would be Electro, but I was going for the irony of Dr. Doom being like the Emperor in "Star Wars," because I think the shadow of Darth Vader effects Doom's characterization. Because the weakest part of this whole movie is Doom's "normal" speaking voice once he dons his armor because I have always thought of him as being to the right of Magneto on the megalomaniac scale. I want Dr. Doom to sound like the king of a European postage stamp nation bringing down his wrath on those who dare oppose him (yes, I think the voice makes that much of a difference, a point amply proven by Darth Vader).

I still end up rounding up on this one at the end even though I am not enamored of the Thing wearing long pants, being married, or looking like he did in issue #1 rather than developing the ridged forehead. I am glad that they explained at one point that Victor's company was out to ruin Reed because I found the idea that Mr. Fantastic is not as smart as we think that he is rather unsettling. Sue Storm is certainly a modern woman and we refer to this film as "the new Jessica Alba movie" around our house, but it is Chris Evans as Johnny Storm who keeps trying to steal this movie. Johnny is no longer a teenager, but he has that mentality and Evans milks the role for all it is worth. Clearly Marvel is always looking for a franchise with any and all of their comic book movies and given that long-range view I also would have liked them to have twisted the knife a bit more with Ben Grimm (e.g., only hint at Alicia at this point), because I think they were a bit too quick to throw away one of the more tragic comic book figures in the Marvel universe. I was going to say you cannot go back and revisit that initial ground again, but we already learned this summer that you can.

If you desperately need to see this movie on your PSP, buy the DVD and use PSP Video 9 to create a movie file (of identical quality) that will play on your PSP's memory card.